Author Archives: Joe Nolan
Revolutionary Black Workers
In the midst of this surreal political season, with the endurance of Black Lives Matter, and having just written an article about an African American neighborhood in Nashville, I suppose it might have been expected that I’d stumble across a mention about the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, but it still caught me by surprise. [...]
Get Psyched
I was driving home after a gig yesterday, listening to WXNA low power FM community radio in Nashville. I heard an ad for an old movie from 1968 starring Dean Stockwell. It was called Psych-Out. Here’s my selection of key sentences from the movie’s Wiki… Psych-Out (1968) is a counterculture-era psychedelic film about hippies, psychedelic [...]
Coming of The Clash
Another post about The Clash, this one goes all the way back to the band’s eponymous first album. It was released in the UK in 1977 but actually followed the band’s second album, Give ‘Em Enough Rope, in America. The album helped to define the punk songbook with tunes like “White Riot,” “Janie Jones,” “London’s [...]
Clash Craps Out
So I’ve been posting a lot about The Clash lately as we look back at the end of that band, 30 years ago in 1986. I’ve been asked to celebrate Joe Strummer’s birthday in August on WXNA’s Eighties/Schmeities show, hosted by Edward Brinson. Joe’s special day is August 21. We’ll commemorate Joe on August 19 [...]
Joe’s Jams
Here’s another post celebrating The Clash at 30: Viva Joe Strummer – The Clash and Beyond documents the British rocker’s childhood as as diplomat’s son, his rock ‘n’ roll initiation with The 101ers, his storied history with The Clash to Strummer’s overlooked later career music which was cut short by his untimely death in 2002. [...]
Considering The Catcher
J.D. Salinger published The Catcher in the Rye on July 16, 1951. Two years later the author retreated to rural New Hampshire where his reclusive lifestyle and diminished writing output found a legend growing up around the author that nearly eclipsed the fame — and infamy — of his first book. Catcher‘ celebrated its 65th [...]
Missing Trane
This month we remember the death of John Coltrane on July 17, 1967. Coltrane’s resume stretches from R&B honking to playing with be-bop legends like Miles and Monk, to pioneering his own spiritually illuminated free jazz in the last decades of his life. A true giant of American music, Coltrane makes my shortlist of heroes [...]
Defining De Palma
Now that the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville is about to come back online I’m excited to see the new space and to watch films at my favorite art house again. I got an email last night confirming that the new Brian De Palma documentary, De Palma, will be screening at the Belcourt in August. DePalma [...]
Clash Crash ’86
This year we mark the anniversary of the death of The Clash — they fired Mick Jones in 1983, but The Clash was still a thing until 1986. Thirty years later I’m planning a number of Clash-related posts in the months to come. The Clash are always in the running when I consider favorite bands [...]
Harry on Peyote
Yesterday I posted about my own new music and a Timothy Leary spoken word record that I found in a record store last week. My pal and Nashville music stalwart Steve Poulton messaged me to say he knew about the Leary record, and also to mention a Harry Smith LP of Kiowa peyote ritual music. [...]
